We are Denny and Linda, the RV Vagabonds, traveling the country in our 2011 Landmark Grand Canyon fifth wheel. After fourteen years on the road we met our goal of playing golf in every state of the Union, so now we're just being footloose and fancy-free until we get the urge to settle down.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Real Life

Little things have been happening since we left Ohio. What is the picture? It's the PVC pipe that holds all of our smaller one inch diameter PVC pipes that we use as sewer hose. Or rather what was left of it after a screw holding the strap iron brace sheared off and caused the 6 foot section of 4 inch pipe to drag on the roadway for an untold number of miles, grinding it away until it was about 3 1/2 feet long and all of the inner pieces fell away somewhere along the road. It was worrisome only because it bothered us that somewhere behind us on the freeway someone had been dodging pieces of pipe. As we had no sewer hookups in Pennsylvania the loss of the sewer pipes wasn't an immediate problem, just something that had to be replaced during the week. It turns out we also had to replace three more of our roof vent caps that had been knocked off by tree branches at a campground in Ohio. And this week while replacing one of those caps Denny noticed that the rubber "skin" on our roof is starting to bubble, meaning it is coming loose in spots. The two of us are going to have to start figuring the cost of repairing some of the things that are starting to go wrong with the trailer with the expense of a new one.

Living in a RV is different from living in a stick built house, but that doesn't mean you don't have maintenance issues, that things don't break down. They do, possibly more so than in a regular house, because our house moves, bounces and flexes with every ride down the road. And because the items inside are downsized and specialized, when they do go wrong it's usually more expensive to repair or replace that item than it would be in a "real" house. What we have to do is figure out whether our trailer, due to our habit of moving every one to two weeks rather than sitting in one place for 4 to 6 months at a time (excluding the past year of course) is going last a few more years structurally so that it would be worth putting in the money to put a new rubber skin on the roof. We like our trailer, it suits our needs and has most of what we want in a RV. It's time to list the pros and cons. But first some sightseeing...I don't want to think about this stuff yet.

About Me

RV Vagabonds: Denny and I purchased our first motorhome on a whim in 1993 and
decided after our first week-long journey to investigate the idea of
full-time rving when we retired. In 1998 we hit the road, looking for
cheap campgrounds located close to golf courses, wandering the red roads
(red lines on state maps) and looking for adventure. When we eat out,
we avoid chain restaurants, preferring the "mom and pop" places or any
locally owned restaurant instead. We're attracted to museums, oddball
attractions, national parks and anyplace on or near water and/or mountains. We love our
life on wheels.

That being said, after fifteen (!) years of life on the road, Denny and I have purchased a house in The Villages and have sold Black Beauty and The Beast. And so a new lifestyle begins...